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Houston devastation very personal for Lewis

She and her husband, University of Houston women’s golf coach Gerrod Chadwell, purchased their home in Northeast Houston about a year-and-a-half ago, but her heart has been there a lot longer than that, which makes watching what’s happening to her hometown so difficult.

Lewis was at the Solheim Cup two weeks ago, and in Ottawa playing the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open last week when the forecasts back home turned dire. She’s at the Cambia Portland Classic this week, anxiously following reports of the epic rainfall in Houston, and the flooding there, from afar.

“It’s awful,” Lewis told GolfChannel.com. “I’m getting updates, but it’s a pretty helpless feeling. It’s hard to see the pictures, to imagine being there and seeing all of that water. It’s unimaginable.”

Lewis moved to the Houston area when she was 11. Her parents, Dale and Carol, are still in the home where she grew up in The Woodlands, about 45 minutes from where she and Gerrod live now. Her parents’ home is fine, too, so far, but neighborhoods around her parents’ home are flooding.

“They have friends in neighborhoods around The Woodlands who are evacuating,” Lewis said.

There is up to 15 more inches of rain predicted over the next couple days.

“My family’s gotten pretty lucky,” Lewis said. “We are good, so far, but we have two more days of rain coming. I think our house, where it is, will be OK when we are all said and done. I’m just more concerned about Gerrod and his team. His girls are going to be impacted longer than we will.”

Stacy has been on the phone regularly with Gerrod, who was at their Houston home until Tuesday, when he left to drive north on Highway 45, taking his UH women’s golf team with him to Dallas to set up a temporary base. The University of Houston campus is closed, with parts of the campus flooded. Two hundred stranded students were rescued from rising waters there on Monday.

“It’s all I’ve done since last Friday is worry about it, worry about Gerrod, my parents, our house and the city,” Lewis said. “It’s hard to be where you are and focus.”

Gerrod moved players to his and Stacy’s home for safety when school closed on Friday, just five days after the fall semester started. Gerrod was part of a rescue mission to the Golf Club of Houston, where the team facility and offices are based. The course flooded in the weekend rains.

“There’s a huge bayou that runs through that course,” Lewis said. “Gerrod and the men’s coach and some others had to take kayaks in to get to their facility. They said they pulled out about $100,000 of equipment, electronics, and they got the kids’ golf clubs.”

The Golf Club of Houston is also home to Lewis, who practices there and at Bluejack National, which she hears hasn’t been as adversely impacted.

Lewis isn’t sure when she will get home. She’s scheduled to play the Indy Women in Tech Championship in Indianapolis next week, and she isn’t sure if she will be able to fly into Houston before that.

“Everything is up in the air right now,” Lewis said. “We will see what happens in the next few days. There are a lot of unknowns.”

In the meantime, Lewis is doing what she can, including supporting University of Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson’s creative shoes and shirts relief effort. Sampson’s effort is explained here:

When the Cambria Portland Classic begins Thursday, Lewis will be there, but part of her will be in Houston, too.

Faldo: Woods told fellow Masters champ 'I'm done' in '17

Fresh off his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, it's easy to get caught up in the recent success and ebullient optimism surrounding Tiger Woods. But it was not that long ago that Woods even hitting another competitive shot was very much in doubt.

Six-time major champ Sir Nick Faldo shed light on those darker times during a recent appearance on the Dan Patrick Show when he relayed a story from the 2017 Masters champions' dinner. The annual meal is one of golf's most exclusive fraternities, as only the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club is allowed to dine with the men who have each donned a green jacket.

Last spring Woods had not yet undergone spinal fusion surgery, and Faldo explained that Woods at one point turned to an unnamed Masters champ and grimly assessed his future playing chances.

"I know he whispered to another Masters champion, two Masters dinners ago, 'I'm done. I won't play golf again,'" Faldo said. "He said, 'I'm done. I'm done, my back is done.' He was in agony. He was in pain. His leg, the pain down his legs, there was nothing enjoyable. He couldn't move. If you watched footage of him, he couldn't even get in and out of the golf cart at the (2016) Ryder Cup when he was a vice captain."

But Woods opted for fusion surgery a few weeks later, and after a lengthy rehab process he returned to competition in December. His 2018 campaign has been nothing short of remarkable, with a pair of runner-up finishes to go along with a T-6 result at The Open when he held the outright lead on the back nine on Sunday.

After apparently even counting himself out, Woods is back up to 26th in the latest world rankings and appears in line to be added as a captain's pick for the Ryder Cup next month.

"What he's been able to do is unbelievable," Faldo said. "To turn this aruond, to get this spine fusion, it's completely taken away the pain. To have this mobility is absolutely amazing. Great on him, and great for golf."

McDowell needs Wyndham result to maintain status

For the first time in nearly three years, Graeme McDowell heads into an event with his PGA Tour status hanging in the balance.

The Ulsterman joined the Tour in 2006, and he has had nearly uninterrupted status since winning the 2010 U.S. Open. But McDowell's two-season exemption for winning the 2015 OHL Classic at Mayakoba only extends through this week, where he will start the Wyndham Championship at No. 143 in the season-long points race.

McDowell tied for fifth at Sedgefield Country Club in 2016, and he will likely need a similar result to crack the top 125 in the standings and retain his fully exempt status for the 2019 season. While he finished T-10 in Las Vegas in November, that remains his lone top-10 finish of the Tour season. The veteran's best results this year have come in Europe, where he tied for fifth at the Italian Open and finished T-12 at the BMW PGA Championship.

"I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself. I feel like it's not a do-or-die scenario for me," McDowell told reporters earlier this month at the Barracuda Championship. "I feel if I was 25 years old without a European Tour card to fall back on, it would be a do-or-die scenario. Certainly trying to put the pressure off, if I don't get myself into the top 125 it's not the end of the world for me. I still feel like I can play a great schedule next season."

By finishing Nos. 126-150 in points after this week, McDowell would retain conditional status that would likely ensure him at least 12-15 starts next season. He would also still have privileges as a past tournament champion.

But he's not the only winner from the 2015-16 season whose two-year exemption is on the verge of running out. Fabian Gomez (160th), Peter Malnati (164th) and Billy Hurley III (202nd) all need big results in Greensboro to keep their cards, while Shane Lowry, David Lingmerth and Matt Every all earned three-year exemptions for victories in 2015 but currently sit Nos. 139, 140 and 184 in points, respectively.

Last year four players moved into the top 125 thanks to strong play at Wyndham, with the biggest jump coming from Rory Sabbatini, who went from No. 148 to No. 122 after tying for fourth place.

Vogel Monday qualifies for eighth time this season

The PGA Tour's regular season ended with another tally for the Monday King.

While Monday qualifiers are a notoriously difficult puzzle to solve, with dozens of decorated professionals vying for no more than four spots in a given tournament field, T.J. Vogel has turned them into his personal playground this season. That trend continued this week when he earned a spot into the season-ending Wyndham Championship, shooting a 5-under 66 and surviving a 4-for-3 playoff for the final spots.

It marks Vogel's eighth successful Monday qualification this season, extending the unofficial record he set when he earned start No. 7 last month at The Greenbrier. Patrick Reed earned the nickname "Mr. Monday" when he successfully qualified six different times during the 2012 season before securing full-time status.

There have been 24 different Monday qualifiers throughout the season, with Vogel impressively turning 19 qualifier starts into eight tournament appearances.

Vogel started the year with only conditional Web.com Tour status, and explained at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May that he devised his summer schedule based on his belief that it's easier to Monday qualify for a PGA Tour event than a Web.com tournament.

"The courses that the PGA Tour sets the qualifiers up, they're more difficult and sometimes they're not a full field whereas the Web, since there's no pre-qualifier, you have two full fields for six spots each and the courses aren't as tough," Vogel said. "So I feel like if you take a look at the numbers, a lot of the Web qualifiers you have to shoot 8-under."

Vogel has made three cuts in his previous seven starts this year, topping out with a T-16 finish at the Valspar Championship in March. The 27-year-old also played the weekend at the Nelson and the Wells Fargo Championship, missing the cut at The Greenbrier in addition to the RSM Classic, Honda Classic and FedEx St. Jude Classic.

While Vogel won't have another Monday qualifier opportunity until October, he has a chance to secure some 2019 status this week in Greensboro. His 51 non-member FedExCup points would currently slot him 205th in the season-long race, 13 points behind Rod Pampling at No. 200. If Vogel earns enough points to reach the equivalent of No. 200 after this week, he'd clinch a spot in the upcoming Web.com Tour Finals where he would have a chance to compete for a full PGA Tour card for the 2018-19 season.

Woods adds BMW Championship to playoff schedule

Tiger Woods is adding a trip to Philadelphia to his growing playoff itinerary.

Having already committed to both The Northern Trust and the Dell Technologies Championship, Woods' agent confirmed to GolfChannel.com that the 14-time major champ will also make an appearance next month at the BMW Championship. It will mark Woods' first start in the third leg of the FedExCup playoffs since 2013 when he tied for 11th at Conway Farms Golf Club outside of Chicago.

This year the Sept. 6-9 event is shifting to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., which is hosting the BMW for the first time. The course previously hosted the Quicken Loans National in both 2010 and 2011. Woods won the BMW en route to FedExCup titles in both 2007 and 2009 when it was held at Cog Hill in Illinois.

Woods was already in good position to make the 70-man BMW field, but his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship vaulted him from 49th to 20th in the season-long points race and assured that he'll make it to Aronimink regardless of his performance in the first two postseason events.

Woods' commitment also means a packed schedule will only get busier leading into the Ryder Cup, where he is expected to be added as a captain's pick. Woods' appearance at the BMW will cap a run of five events in six weeks, and should he tee it up in Paris it could be his seventh start in a nine-week stretch if he also qualifies for the 30-player Tour Championship.